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  1. #1

    Thumbs down KnownHost.com Long Time Customer With Very Bad Experience

    This is a 3.5 year review of KnownHost, and you can validate this by visiting the VPS forum where I first reviewed their company. I first started out on their VPS, and at the time their company was fairly knew, so their service was top notch. About a year ago they introduced dedicated servers and I decided to upgrade to their "entry level" server, but I noticed at the time the service seemed to be going downhill slightly.

    Two days ago we decided to enable http compression on the server and immediately the servers went offline. Now my sites have been offline going on day two. I tried to contact their sales department after their tech department kept telling me I needed more server resources (they didn't know I was already on a dedicated server). They made no mention to the fact that their sales department was closed on the weekends, so I sent in a ticket for an upgraded server. I waited hours and finally got a response from Joel. He made mention that they would waive the upgrade fees for me (after I asked of course). I kinda skimmed his response and then asked him how I would ensure I wasn't charged the setup fee, but no response. After a few hours I sent another response, and here is a portion of the response from Joel, after I complained about their slow response time: "It's a holiday weekend and we are replying off hours (Sales department isn't even open) to you so sorry if this isn't good enough for you. We are a professional host and treat customers with full respect but we won't commit to replying on holiday weekends to sales tickets at any hour of the day. We do our best but we don't advertise we are open 24/7 in Sales. Our Support is 24/7 but our Sales office is open Monday-Friday 9-5pm EST as we advertise on our website. We have many customers who've been with us for years as we are one of the best of the best as we know what we're doing. If you feel moving is in your best interest then please do so. We wouldn't want someone as a customer who doesn't feel we provide what they need."

    Now understand, this was after I had to deal with their tech support regarding the issue. Here is what happened on that end.

    My site was down all day (and still is by the way), and I keep getting different information as to what will fix it. First I am told I need more server resources (as your own tech support doesn't know that I am already on a dedicated server so I have access to all server resources). Another tech says I need more RAM, which I ordered immediately, and it does nothing to fix the issue. Then I am told it's my scripts which are causing the issue, yet this started exactly after the server was changed to http compression. Finally, I ask your tech support if upgrading my server will fix this issue, and here is the response:

    Posted On: Dec/27/2009 12:06 AM
    Hello,

    We are working on this issue and will update you shortly.

    Thanks,
    Chris
    KnownHost Support

    And then Finally

    Hello,

    The account "mysite.com" is consuming much high cpu usage in the server. Especially "forums" in the domain.....

    Remember, my question was if upgrading my server would fix the issue, not what was causing the issue. I am sure anyone one of you who have have your sites down can relate to how frustrating this can be, especially if your income is dependent on those sites being online. You are told many different things as to what will fix the problem, and then when you ask a simple question as to whether or not an upgrade will fix the issue, they simply repeat what they have said already 10 times in the tickets.

    Now, I may have missed that portion regarding the invoice, but that is no excuse to treat your customers in this manner. I have been sitting on the computer all day trying to get my sites back online, something that you don't seem very concerned about. Some of us site owners make our daily bread based on our sites being online and cannot afford to have our sites offline all day, with little help from sales or tech support.

    I would have never expected this type of behavior from you guys when I first wrote this review years ago, but how the company has changed.

    Regards,
    Bob

    I don't know about anyone else, but I found the response from KnownHost to be very rude, especially to a customer who has been with them for so long and whose sites are all down. These sites are my only source of income to help pay the server fees.

    Lucky for me I found a host whose sales department is open on the weekends, and I will create a new review for them once I get a chance to use them for a few weeks. They say they can have the servers up and ready within 24 hours.
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  2. #2
    What sort of forums are you currently running? Is it by any chance vB 4? Or are you running an earlier version of vBulletin with many addons?
    478east
    High Bandwidth Servers
    Custom Hosting Solutions
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  3. #3
    How many people are online at once at any given time? Do you have a dual core? Maybe you need a quad core.
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  4. #4
    Join Date
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    If enabling HTTP compression broke it, why not turn HTTP compression off to get things working again, and then test HTTP compression on a site-by-site (or section-by-section) basis on your development environment first?

    It doesn't sound like tech support was overly helpful, and I have no experience with these guys.. but just sayin'.
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  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by cristibighea View Post
    What sort of forums are you currently running? Is it by any chance vB 4? Or are you running an earlier version of vBulletin with many addons?
    They were referring to my daughters site, which uses SMF (has been using SMF for about a year and a half). She only has about 40 people on at a time, and it was never a problem until we enabled HTTP compression. It could be a coincidence, but it crashed as they ran the script and has been having problems ever since. I also run an IPB forum which also usually has about 40 users online at a time, which shouldn't be a problem for a dedicated server.
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  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by rlshosting View Post
    How many people are online at once at any given time? Do you have a dual core? Maybe you need a quad core.
    We are using an "entry level" dual core server. I am in the process of upgrading to a quad core now, and hopefully it will solve the load issue. I will post in here the results.
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  7. #7
    Join Date
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    It's amazing how a "fully managed service" offers upgrades as the only solution when they obviously can barely understand the problem. The equivalent of throwing darts in the dark at the customer's expense isn't any kind of solution, ESPECIALLY when sites are down.
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  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Honestly, I do not think any of you are in the wrong. As Joel stated, they do not open sales department 24/7 and neither do they advertise a 24/7 sales department and for him even opening up his mail outside of those hours to see about a client's request is very admirable. :thumbup:

    I dont know if its how I did science when I was growing up but to me this point is pure common sense

    You enabled http compression and noticed something went wrong. I would have simply reversed the action to see if that at least solves the problem. You always have to use the process of elimination when handling scripts and various other websites on the same server.

    Please give it much thought next time before posting a thread like this because as I stated in another post, all of this goes straight to google, yahoo etc

    Best Regards with your business
    If you're the smartest person in the room then you're in the wrong room
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  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by cpoalmighty View Post
    Honestly, I do not think any of you are in the wrong. As Joel stated, they do not open sales department 24/7 and neither do they advertise a 24/7 sales department and for him even opening up his mail outside of those hours to see about a client's request is very admirable. :thumbup:

    I dont know if its how I did science when I was growing up but to me this point is pure common sense
    It might have made sense for Joel to mention this in the ticket I submitted to sales too. When I first submitted my ticket to sales, they said they were lightly staffed, not closed. If they had told me they were closed, I could have wasted less time waiting for a response, and more time looking for a new host. Perhaps your pure common sense aught to take that into consideration as well? In addition, nothing, and I mean nothing, justifies being rude to your customers, especially your long term loyal customers.

    You enabled http compression and noticed something went wrong. I would have simply reversed the action to see if that at least solves the problem. You always have to use the process of elimination when handling scripts and various other websites on the same server.
    I couldn't agree more, and since I pay them to fully manage my server, you would have thought they would have tried this themselves, but they didn't until I suggested it.

    Please give it much thought next time before posting a thread like this because as I stated in another post, all of this goes straight to google, yahoo etc

    Best Regards with your business
    I am not sure if your referring to me or Joel, but I gave plenty of thought to my review.
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    It might have made sense for Joel to mention this in the ticket I submitted to sales too. When I first submitted my ticket to sales, they said they were lightly staffed, not closed. If they had told me they were closed, I could have wasted less time waiting for a response, and more time looking for a new host.
    Surely you're able to do two things at once? You'd have been notified by email or whatever form of communication should one of their staff members have replied to your support ticket. I don't see how waiting around for that response stopped you in your course for looking for a new host.

    You enabled http compression yourself? Why didn't you disable it also? Yes you pay for a fully managed server but such actions can be done yourself surely.
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  11. #11
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    I am was referring to you when I said Best Regards with your business because you're the one whose website went down Not Known Host.

    I really do hope you get your websites back up again especially those forums!

    I personally do not think an upgrade would help the situation right now. Just reverse the process and see if that helps the problem. Don't spend anymore money on a server upgrade especially when they themselves cant determine the problem (science geek is coming out in me ) lol
    If you're the smartest person in the room then you're in the wrong room
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  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Gwynne View Post
    Surely you're able to do two things at once? You'd have been notified by email or whatever form of communication should one of their staff members have replied to your support ticket. I don't see how waiting around for that response stopped you in your course for looking for a new host.

    You enabled http compression yourself? Why didn't you disable it also? Yes you pay for a fully managed server but such actions can be done yourself surely.
    Actually, I don't know much about servers, which is why I pay to have it fully managed, and therefore, no, I cannot do it myself. Can you tear down a 350 small block Chevy and replace the pistons, rings, and rods, and then bore and stroke it to a 383 if you don't know how? What a silly thing to imply. Not everyone knows how to manage a server, which is why some of us have our servers fully managed.

    I didn't decide to actually make the leap until Joel's rude reply. In addition, I didn't know their sales were closed on the weekends either, which would have also been a deciding factor. I guess some folks just don't think their long term, loyal customers, are worth anything these days. I sure hope you don't run a hosting company, because I feel sorry for anyone who may use it.
    Last edited by OldSchool1999; 12-27-2009 at 05:36 PM.
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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by cpoalmighty View Post
    I am was referring to you when I said Best Regards with your business because you're the one whose website went down Not Known Host.

    I really do hope you get your websites back up again especially those forums!

    I personally do not think an upgrade would help the situation right now. Just reverse the process and see if that helps the problem. Don't spend anymore money on a server upgrade especially when they themselves cant determine the problem (science geek is coming out in me ) lol
    I apologize, I wasn't sure if you were referring to me or Knownhost. Thank you for the kind regards. It has been a very frustrating weekend for sure. I am just hoping I can get my sites to a new host who can actually figure out the exact cause of the problems instead of giving me the run around. I have a lot to learn about servers, and I am at a big disadvantage since I know little to nothing about them. It's time for me to get educated about this stuff.
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  14. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    434

    Christmas blues

    I am a little confused with the tone and substance of a lot of what the OP has said in this thread. In the spirit of Christmas a little tolerance and respect for other people can go a long way. Some of the things I don't understand:

    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    This is a 3.5 year review of KnownHost, and you can validate this by visiting the VPS forum where I first reviewed their company. I first started out on their VPS, and at the time their company was fairly knew, so their service was top notch. About a year ago they introduced dedicated servers and I decided to upgrade to their "entry level" server, but I noticed at the time the service seemed to be going downhill slightly.
    You state you were not completely satisfied ("service seemed to be going downhill slightly"), so why did you stay with them? Generally, if we are dissatisfied with a provider we look elsewhere rather than increasing our service with them.

    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    Two days ago we decided to enable http compression on the server and immediately the servers went offline. Now my sites have been offline going on day two.
    But you also stated later on:

    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    Actually, I don't know much about servers, which is why I pay to have it fully managed, and therefore, no, I cannot do it myself. Can you tear down a 350 small block Chevy and replace the pistons, rings, and rods, and then bore and stroke it to a 383 if you don't know how? What a silly thing to imply. Not everyone knows how to manage a server, which is why some of us have our servers fully managed.
    Even if you don't know anything about servers, surely you know that changing settings has the potential for taking a server ofline or doing serious damage to your server stability. Since you have fully managed servers, why didn't you let the Support staff take end to end responsibility and change the settings -- then Support could monitor and deal with any problems that might arise?

    It does not seem to me that Support caused this problem. Support may not have been aware of what had been done, and so had trouble sussing out a solution.

    Had you let them handle this issue I could see why you might have a grievance, but since you admitted you are not server literate and still went ahead, I don't see how Support should be held responsible for not being able to immediately spot the problem.

    As far as the sales office being closed, virtually every sales office at hosts around the world are closed Christmas Day. I would have just assumed that to be true. The fact is someone in sales was nice enough to check and respond. I don't know what you said to them first, since you are obviously very frustrated, so who was rude to whom first is difficult to say.

    Bottom line this is a very unfortunate situation, and I feel for you and hope you get this sorted as soon as possible. I know you are frustrated, but I suggest you not take it out on the host. They are operating, I am sure, under reduced staffing because of the Christmas season, to give as many of their technicians and engineers as possible time to be home with their families, so a little patience and tolerance can go a long way in allowing things to be handled in a reasonable manner.
    Last edited by Autolycus; 12-27-2009 at 06:36 PM.
    AUTOLYCUS
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  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    I sure hope you don't run a hosting company, because I feel sorry for anyone who may use it.
    How so?
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  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Chris Gwynne View Post
    How so?
    Your attitude.
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  17. #17
    I would say, if you yourself enabled http compression, then yes, we expect you to be able to disable it, after you realize it was causing a problem. However, if your management company enabled it, whereupon your site stopped working, and they weren't smart enough to realize to try to undo their most recent change, then yes, that's pretty poor management.

    I would say the response you got from sales was certainly rude, but without seeing what you said to them, it's hard to say if it was totally unjustified rude reply to a customer, or if it was simply an unprofessional response to an irate customer.
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  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Autolycus View Post
    You state you were not completely satisfied ("service seemed to be going downhill slightly"), so why did you stay with them. Generally, if we are dissatisfied with a provider we look elsewhere rather than increasing our service with them.
    I cannot afford the down time that comes with changing hosts. This is honestly the only reason I have not moved sooner. I believe in one of my posts here a while back, you will see that I mentioned the fact that service seemed to be taking a hit. I believe it was about a year or so ago. If I get a chance to find that post, I will link to show that I am not making this up. But overall I agree, if I had done this back when I made that post here, I would not be having this issue right now.

    But you also stated later on:
    When I say we, I am referring to Knownhost and myself. I have been with them that long that I refer to them and myself as we. I talked to them about the HTTP compression and they assured me that it was a great idea and would not cause any problems. They are the ones who enabled it. I hope that clears up any confusion.

    Even if you don't know anything about servers, surely you know that changing settings has the potential for taking a server ofline or doing serious damage to your server stability. Since you have fully managed servers, why didn't you let the Support staff take end to end responsibility and change the settings. Then they could monitor and deal with any problems that might arise?
    Actually, I did let the company take full responsibility, and they are the ones who made the changes. I talked to the server techs before they made the changes, and they assured me it wouldn't cause any problems. All your questions seem to be based on the assumption that I ran the script myself, which I did not. In addition, many times they will try to tell me to do some of this stuff on the server, but I have to let them know that I have no idea what they are referring too, and that I pay them to do it.

    It does not seem to me that they caused this problem and without seeing the whole series of tickets submitted, Support may not have been aware of what had been done so had trouble sussing out a solution.
    Again, they are the ones who made the changes. I guess your questions is coming form the assumption that I made server changes on my own, which I did not.

    Had you let them handle this issue I could see why you might have a grievance, but since you admitted you are not server literate and still went ahead, I don't see how they should be held responsible for not being able to immediately spot the problem.
    See above response.

    As far as the sales office being closed, virtually every sales office at hosts around the world are closed Christmas Day. I would have just assumed that to be true. The fact is someone in sales was nice enough to check and respond.
    Seems you have the dates mixed up, this didn't occur on Christmas day, it occurred on the 26th.

    Bottom line this is a very unfortunate situation, and I feel for you and hope you get this sorted as soon as possible. I know you are frustrated, but I suggest you not take it out on the host. They are operating, I am sure, under reduced staffing because of the Christmas season, to give as many of their technicians and engineers as possible time to be home with their families, so a little patience and tolerance can go a long way in allowing things to be handled in a reasonable manner.
    I have a hunch their technicians are actually in another country, particularly India, but I see your point and understand. It was their extremely rude reply which finally helped me make up my mind. I hope I cleared up any confusion on the part that some seem to think I made the changes myself, which I did not.
    Last edited by OldSchool1999; 12-27-2009 at 06:46 PM.
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  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by funkywizard View Post
    I would say, if you yourself enabled http compression, then yes, we expect you to be able to disable it, after you realize it was causing a problem. However, if your management company enabled it, whereupon your site stopped working, and they weren't smart enough to realize to try to undo their most recent change, then yes, that's pretty poor management.

    I would say the response you got from sales was certainly rude, but without seeing what you said to them, it's hard to say if it was totally unjustified rude reply to a customer, or if it was simply an unprofessional response to an irate customer.
    Let me clear this up again, I did NOT enable the compression. I don't mess with the server, I let them do it.

    Here is the ticket which preceded the rude reply:

    Alright, I have to admit, I am very dissatisfied with the response time. I have all my sites down, and I am currently looking for alternative hosts. I have loved being with knownhost, but this is a big bummer. My only source of income, which pays for this hosting, is down. I have people who pay me to advertise on those sites, and they are not getting their money's worth. I am between a rock and a hard space, and you guys cannot even answer my simple questions in a timely manner. I have been with known host for 3.5 years, and many companies would like to have a loyal customer this long, especially in these very hard economic times. My lively hood is now resting in your hands, and not even a response hours after the last message to you. I guess it's time for me to move on.
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  20. #20
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    *

    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    Let me clear this up again, I did NOT enable the compression. I don't mess with the server, I let them do it.

    Here is the ticket which preceded the rude reply:

    Alright, I have to admit, I am very dissatisfied with the response time. I have all my sites down, and I am currently looking for alternative hosts. I have loved being with knownhost, but this is a big bummer. My only source of income, which pays for this hosting, is down. I have people who pay me to advertise on those sites, and they are not getting their money's worth. I am between a rock and a hard space, and you guys cannot even answer my simple questions in a timely manner. I have been with known host for 3.5 years, and many companies would like to have a loyal customer this long, especially in these very hard economic times. My lively hood is now resting in your hands, and not even a response hours after the last message to you. I guess it's time for me to move on.
    , I'm sorry to see what you've been through. I guess they need more support personal to fit your needs. I hope you find a new good provider soon
    █ Diego Rodríguez B. - https://diegorbaquero.com
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  21. #21
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    Just an observation, you have only posted what they have said, how about posting your responses to them too? The way they responded to you gives me the indication you were not all that polite in dealing with them, and from experience it really makes dealing with a situation much harder when the person you are helping doesn't respect you.

    Another observation, you said in 3.5 years you have been with them.. This is just one incident, how were things in those previous 3.5 years? To be with a host for such an amount of time surely means they aren't a bad host, just that 1 incident wasn't to your satisfaction.. I don't think it warrants such a negative review about them and perhaps it may be more beneficial to work the situation out with them till the end, then decide whether posting about them is necessary.

    These are just my observations from what I have read..But as I mentioned, I would really be interested in seeing the emails sent to them too rather than just what they have said..


    All the best with getting your issue sorted..
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  22. #22
    Quote Originally Posted by Autolycus View Post
    You state you were not completely satisfied ("service seemed to be going downhill slightly"), so why did you stay with them? Generally, if we are dissatisfied with a provider we look elsewhere rather than increasing our service with them.
    Just so you know I am not making this up, I went and found that old post I was referring too in my other post in this topic here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpo...83&postcount=8
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  23. #23
    Quote Originally Posted by IH-Rameen View Post
    Just an observation, you have only posted what they have said, how about posting your responses to them too? The way they responded to you gives me the indication you were not all that polite in dealing with them, and from experience it really makes dealing with a situation much harder when the person you are helping doesn't respect you.

    Another observation, you said in 3.5 years you have been with them.. This is just one incident, how were things in those previous 3.5 years? To be with a host for such an amount of time surely means they aren't a bad host, just that 1 incident wasn't to your satisfaction.. I don't think it warrants such a negative review about them and perhaps it may be more beneficial to work the situation out with them till the end, then decide whether posting about them is necessary.

    These are just my observations from what I have read..But as I mentioned, I would really be interested in seeing the emails sent to them too rather than just what they have said..


    All the best with getting your issue sorted..
    Fair enough, but I assure you that what I posted above was my actual response before their rude response. I can try to get a screen capture to prove I am not lying. I admit, I was rude to their tech staff after I asked them a question and the simply continued to repeat the same thing over and over again, but that was their tech support and not sales.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails knownhost.JPG  
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  24. #24
    Quote Originally Posted by bobage24 View Post
    Just so you know I am not making this up, I went and found that old post I was referring too in my other post in this topic here: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showpo...83&postcount=8
    This was 2007...
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  25. #25
    And just to make sure everyone knows the truth, here was my upset post to their tech department, after hours of getting the run around. I simply asked them if upgrading would fix the issue, and all the said was the server was overloaded, as if they never even read what I wrote:

    "For crying out fing loud, did you even read my last fing post?"

    I know I could have left out the cuss words, and reflecting back, I should have, but I was pissed.
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